ArticleNature genetics2020
The landscape of viral associations in human cancers.
Article in Nature genetics, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 250 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
250 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 392 citations in OpenAlex.
- Human endogenous retroviruses as immune-related prognostic biomarkers in pancreatic cancer.BMC cancer · 2026Pooled it
- Prevalence of human cytomegalovirus in glioblastoma multiforme: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of neuro-oncology · 2025Pooled it
- Radiation therapy enhances immunotherapy response in microsatellite stable colorectal and pancreatic adenocarcinoma in a phase II trial.Nature cancer · 2021Trial
- Modulation of the response to immunotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer: the role of the microbiota and microbial metabolites in the tumor microenvironment.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Toward next-generation therapeutic HPV vaccines: A review on expanding the antigen repertoire and an integrated bioinformatics selection framework.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Review
- Microbiome: a driver of pancreatic inflammation and tumorigenesis.Trends in cancer · 2026Review
- Article
- Diverse origin and nature of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes: the infection hypothesis.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2026Review
- SARS-CoV-2 and Cancer Biology: Exploring the Mechanistic Links.Cancer reports (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2026Review
- Paracrine signals from HIV-1-infected immune cells reprogram cervical cancer pathways.iScience · 2026Article
- Spatial cellular order underlies locally-confined mechanisms of immune resistance in oropharyngeal cancer.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Fusobacterium nucleatum in cancer: Interactions with microbiota, tumour colonisation and cancer progression.Clinical and translational medicine · 2026Review
- The non-bacterial oncobiome: the role of the mycobiome and virome in tumor plasticity.Journal of the Egyptian National Cancer Institute · 2026Review
- Intratumoral microbiota in cancer: molecular mechanism and therapeutic strategies.Molecular biomedicine · 2026Review
- Targeting Host Metabolic and Epigenetic Rewiring Blocks Lytic Gammaherpesvirus Production.Viruses · 2026Article
- Sex-biased intratumoral microbiome influences tumor molecular and immune landscape and disease outcomes.Cell reports. Medicine · 2026Article
- Neoantigen Targeting as a Novel Approach for Therapy-Resistant Tumors.Molecular diagnosis & therapy · 2026Review
- Transposable elements shape stemness in normal and leukemic hematopoiesis.Nature genetics · 2026Article
- Detection of AdenoviralInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Article
190 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
15 authors at 17 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Here, as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, for which whole-genome and-for a subset-whole-transcriptome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumor types was aggregated, we systematically investigated potential viral pathogens using a consensus approach that integrated three independent pipelines. Viruses were detected in 382 genome and 68 transcriptome datasets. We found a high prevalence of known tumor-associated viruses such as Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), hepatitis B virus (HBV) and human papilloma virus (HPV; for example, HPV16 or HPV18). The study revealed significant exclusivity of HPV and driver mutations in head-and-neck cancer and the association of HPV with APOBEC mutational signatures, which suggests that impaired antiviral defense is a driving force in cervical, bladder and head-and-neck carcinoma. For HBV, HPV16, HPV18 and adeno-associated virus-2 (AAV2), viral integration was associated with local variations in genomic copy numbers. Integrations at the TERT promoter were associated with high telomerase expression evidently activating this tumor-driving process. High levels of endogenous retrovirus (ERV1) expression were linked to a worse survival outcome in patients with kidney cancer.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.